Vet requesting payment in advance?!

EventingMum said:
Our vets email out the bills either the same day or the following day of the visit. If it is paid within 24hrs of being sent out you get a 5% discount.
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My vet always E Mailed me the bill the same day and I paid it at once
When she came to put Rufty down I asked her not to do this and she agreed. I got the bill at the end of the month. £60 more than I had been quoted though
 
My vet is an independent, one of the few still around. He works with other local vets for an OOH service, but you do have to pay up front if you get one of the other vets. Which i am quite happy with. I did take exception though when the OOH vet came and having paid the £300 up front fee (which i did) they spent 15 minutes on the phone to another person who refused to pay that money and she advised them over the phone. I got charged a call out fee, an examination fee and then a consultation fee. I took that up with my vet explained the situation and that was credited off. I have no complaints about paying for a service, but i did think that was out of order. I always pay my bills on time. I know how hard they have to work to get money out of some. The vet did once say they spent longer on social media hunting down clients who didn't pay, then moved yards!
 
I'd happily pay for routine things like vaccinations, dental exams etc upfront because the cost is fixed or at least predictable. I'm afraid I wouldn't be impressed by paying upfront for unknown investigations and needing to get a refund afterwards if all the money hadn't been used. I do appreciate how tricky it must be for vet practices though.
 
When I joined my vet practise with my two horses, they asked for a £150.00 deposit up front to open the account and said that it would go towards my first vet bill with them, and that the £150.00 is purely done for the benefit of the client so that they have some sort of amount on their account.

To be honest, I don't mind about paying on the day for things like jabs, routine call outs, dentistry etc - I figure that it's how the rest of the world tends to work so why should the vets be any different. You wouldn't go into Tesco's and ask if you can pay for your shopping in 30 days.

Of course things are different if it's regarding insurance claims etc - then I find it's a case of explaining that your horse is insured and discussing how best to go around putting the claim in etc.
 
AppyLover1996 said:
When I joined my vet practise with my two horses, they asked for a £150.00 deposit up front to open the account and said that it would go towards my first vet bill with them, and that the £150.00 is purely done for the benefit of the client so that they have some sort of amount on their account.

To be honest, I don't mind about paying on the day for things like jabs, routine call outs, dentistry etc - I figure that it's how the rest of the world tends to work so why should the vets be any different. You wouldn't go into Tesco's and ask if you can pay for your shopping in 30 days.

Of course things are different if it's regarding insurance claims etc - then I find it's a case of explaining that your horse is insured and discussing how best to go around putting the claim in etc.
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The practice I’ve just joined don’t deal with insurance claims, all fees have to be paid by the owner it’s in their T&Cs when you sign up. Slightly scary thought but I guess that’s how most vet practices work now!
 
Compared to say 20 years ago it strikes me that vets are less happy in their work and owners are less happy with practices.
I predict that over the next 10 or so years people will gradually reduce the number of animals they keep and there’ll be a contraction of the profession.
 
AppyLover1996 said:
When I joined my vet practise with my two horses, they asked for a £150.00 deposit up front to open the account and said that it would go towards my first vet bill with them, and that the £150.00 is purely done for the benefit of the client so that they have some sort of amount on their account.

To be honest, I don't mind about paying on the day for things like jabs, routine call outs, dentistry etc - I figure that it's how the rest of the world tends to work so why should the vets be any different. You wouldn't go into Tesco's and ask if you can pay for your shopping in 30 days.

Of course things are different if it's regarding insurance claims etc - then I find it's a case of explaining that your horse is insured and discussing how best to go around putting the claim in etc.
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I don't think anyone was objecting to paying on the day of treatment - it is paying before treatment that I find odd.
 
Not read the whole thread, and I only ever get a tiny handful of non-payers, or very late payers, but if I had the admin help, and could afford that extra chore for every customer (because most will have extra charges for work done on the day, so it's two invoices) I would take payment in advance. The only issue, for me, with a complex diary, is that it's hard to know at what point you would cancel someone's booking as they'd not paid their "deposit".
 
Lois Lame said:
I don't think anyone was objecting to paying on the day of treatment - it is paying before treatment that I find odd.
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In my opening line I did mention about paying before any treatment took place -

"When I joined my vet practise with my two horses, they asked for a £150.00 deposit up front to open the account and said that it would go towards my first vet bill with them, and that the £150.00 is purely done for the benefit of the client so that they have some sort of amount on their account." ;)

I can understand why vets are adopting the pay before treatment approach with people taking so long to pay - sadly it's always the few who spoil it for the many......
 
Lois Lame said:
I don't think anyone was objecting to paying on the day of treatment - it is paying before treatment that I find odd.
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Because once the treatment is done, it's done, and then you are chasing some people and not always successfully. Forgotten purses/wallets, promised phonecalls that don't happen, promised online payments ditto. We've had people leave the practice to nip to the bank/cashpoint and then just drop out of sight and never be heard from again. Emergencies are worst, because you really don't want to be adding to people's stress or upset, but quite a proportion of these are not paid promptly, if at all. Debt levels and losses need to be kept as low as possible, obviously. so pre paying where possible is the way it's going I'm afraid. We don't ask for up front payments except for booked procedures currently, but it's coming down the line. (IVC small animal)
 
I took Wig to the vet in the morning and flew to Australia for a month in the afternoon. He gave me a bill when I left. Somewhere over the Pacific I had that moment of realisation that I hadn't paid it and couldn't remember the amount. I texted the vet when I landed explained what had happened and asked him how much it was. He just told me to pay him when I got back. He's a semi-retired one man band and only has select clients so can afford to do this as he knows we'll all pay. I know it's not the norm and really appreciated it.

When Wig got choke a couple of months back I had the emergency vet out from the larger practice as mine was unavailable (the down side of the one man band). It was about 6pm. They charged the out of hours call out fee - which turned out to be more than half the bill - and I was only too happy to pay it considering they sorted him out.
 
Annagain said:
I took Wig to the vet in the morning and flew to Australia for a month in the afternoon. He gave me a bill when I left. Somewhere over the Pacific I had that moment of realisation that I hadn't paid it and couldn't remember the amount. I texted the vet when I landed explained what had happened and asked him how much it was. He just told me to pay him when I got back. He's a semi-retired one man band and only has select clients so can afford to do this as he knows we'll all pay. I know it's not the norm and really appreciated it.
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We went away for two months last December, (Daisy staying with good friends). I'd put everything in place with the vets for when we were away (details of friends, consent to treatments and (if necessary) euthanasia), and asked them if they wanted to hold an amount on account - I suggested £1k due to the fact I was going to be out of the country. They were adamant that they didn't want me to do that, and any bills could be settled when I returned home. Again, this is a small independent practice, and I've been a customer for 11 years. So they know me well. But i'd have been happy to do that, and wouldn't have been surprised if they'd requested it.
 
Landcruiser said:
Because once the treatment is done, it's done, and then you are chasing some people and not always successfully. Forgotten purses/wallets, promised phonecalls that don't happen, promised online payments ditto. We've had people leave the practice to nip to the bank/cashpoint and then just drop out of sight and never be heard from again. Emergencies are worst, because you really don't want to be adding to people's stress or upset, but quite a proportion of these are not paid promptly, if at all. Debt levels and losses need to be kept as low as possible, obviously. so pre paying where possible is the way it's going I'm afraid. We don't ask for up front payments except for booked procedures currently, but it's coming down the line. (IVC small animal)
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Yes, it's understandable why it's going that way, it's just that it's a shame.

I suppose really it's no big deal... I tend to have over-the-top reactions when I first learn of something, and then settle :)
 
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